Blu-ray added to Kaleidescape media server range

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Kaleidescapeare today updating their range of media servers by adding two players with Blu-ray capabilities, the M500 and the M300. While both have Blu-ray playback capabilities, the M500 also has the ability to import high-def movies from Blu-ray discs straight onto the media server.

Loading the discs onto the Kaleidescape server allows the films to be watched on any number of Kaleidescape players you may have dotted around the house. However, at £2,995 and £1,995 for the M500 and M300 respectively, that looks to be a feature only really open to the super-rich.

You get plenty of bang for your buck though. The Kaleidescape range include support for
1080p video with 24 frames per second and bitstream pass-through of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as having one of the most comprehensive UI’s available, with a movie guide covering detailed information on 135,000 titles.

Annoyingly though, due to copyright restrictions, playback of Blu-ray films from the server can only be accessed if the retail Blu-ray disc is present in at least one player. It’s a problem Kaleidescape are said to be working on, with a disc-loader in the works, but it kind of undermines the whole point of a Blu-ray server as it stands.